Youth and Revolutions

2025-06-28

I have heard a few times that only young people create revolutions.

“To be young is the only religion.” -Charles Bukowski, Notes of a Dirty Old Man

“Every generation needs a new revolution.” -Thomas Jefferson

I think that there is a lot of evidence that most revolutions are started by pretty young people. I know that the 1960’s counter culture hippie revolution was spearheaded by young people rebelling against their parent. But I wanted to look at more examples of revolutions and see how young the people really were.

The average age of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was 44, not that young but not that old. In 1776 George Washington was 44. According to google it was hard to determine the age’s of everyone during the French revolution but Napoleon was 20 (in 1789) and Robespierre was in his early 30s. Vladimir Lenin was 47 when he took power in 1917. So here is a mix of people, none too old but also not everyone was super young and starry eyed.

But after googling I couldn’t find any good examples of revolutions started by older people. I think that some revolutions are led by a single older person, or the ideas of an old person. Mandela was 71 when he was released from prison and helped end South African apartheid. Maybe that is a good one.

But I do bet that young people will more often have the mindset of ‘tear it down and try again’ while older people will have the mindset of ‘incremental changes’. Maybe old people are more jaded? I dunno, I am speculating. But it was interesting to learn more about revolutions.

-Gary